New study puts ‘codependency’ to rest: How domestic violence perpetrators weaponise attachment

3rd November 2025Mags Lesiak, Doctoral Researcher, University of Cambridge

New research into how perpetrators of repeat abuse “weaponise attachment” use grooming, trauma-sharing, and emotional manipulation to coerce victims – a relationship wrongly described by many professionals as ‘codependency’ – has highlighted the language and actions that police, social workers and others need to understand to be able to recognise coercive control, as research author and University of Cambridge Doctoral Researcher Mags Lesiak explains.

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New study puts ‘codependency’ to rest: How domestic violence perpetrators weaponise attachment

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